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No, you weren't supposed to take offense, I was just trying to type strong words to emphasize my point.

Actually you are right when you say:

"PS - no new Vaders and Lukes means no more Star Wars line, which means no chance for Shasa Tiel and company, that's how it's dared. "

I'm just trying to say that from my perspective, I won't be buying the Vaders and Lukes.

The question wasn't what you won't buy.

But as to the "muscle-men" comment, I feel some nostalgia for the He-man Luke etc. I started collecting Playmates Star Trek TNG in 1992 and went to a Trek convention in 1995 to see Patrick Stewart I think. And there I head the return of SW figures was coming. I decided I'd try and see some pictures of the first 9 figures, so I went to the dealers' room. Incredibly, instead of finding pictures, I found the figures and even got Leia and C-3PO at a cheap price (for what would temporarily be coming) because the vendors didn't know she'd be rare or anything.

So I kind of like the memories.

The memories are far more valuable as Star Wars collectibles than those toys themselves.

Originally Posted by El Chuxter

I'd just like every resculpt to be an improvement. All of these "better articulation, worse likeness--now with improper paint!" figures are really grating on me.

Your cruelty is unwelcome.

Originally Posted by bigbarada

I agree, the "one step forward, three steps backwards" approach is really sucking all of the enjoyment out of collecting modern figures.

I think it's the fact that we're paying more as we're also getting compromised paint work which really digs the grave.

Originally Posted by bigbarada

I think the headsculpts are a matter of artistry not finances. So that's going to rely on skill and talent more than anything else. If you hire an untalented artist and you double his pay, he's not going to suddenly become more talented, he's just going to be overpaid. Similarly, a talented artist is going to have the same level of talent no matter what you pay him.

The guys who sculpt these figures are artists, plain and simple. They might be artists under crushing deadlines, but they are still artists nonetheless. So, the common rules of productivity don't necessarily apply to them.

Sculpts are about both, really. The primary sculpt may not have enough time budgeted to get it perfect, time is really money in this situation. Or the primary sculpt is a home run but there's not enough skill or time at the factory to translate it into the tooling as well as it deserves. The problem is that the figures we get are factory sculpts based on artistic sculpts, it's an extra set of hands in the process and they're thousands of miles away with not all that much oversight at those chinese vendors. When you look at some of Vennemeyer's sculpts (Dave Vennemeyer: Hasbro chief sculptor for this brand) at a convention - he often brings the wax originals and prototypes and such - they're lightyears better than the production versions and the reason becomes clear when you listen to what the team talks about with chinese factories/vendors. So Tycho is not exactly right and not exactly wrong when he says budget is part of the problem.

To be honest though, I haven't found likenesses wanting lately, it's been more about body and/or costume problems - either sculpted or removable or cloth, doesn't matter, there's often something wrong - and articulation problems and body proportion problems and materials issues and QC and fit-n-finish issues, but standing above all of those are 2 ogre-sized problems: mediocre paint, and mediocre value.

Originally Posted by El Chuxter

My problem with it is, if you had a perfect headsculpt before, why not re-use it instead of making a lesser one?

There are usually reasons like these given at conventions and in past Q&A:
- the tooling is lost or unavailable in a different factory;
- the tooling is in use for another execution, like an exclusive set;
- the previous headsculpt no longer fits with current aesthetics or with current manufacturing or assembly (a cut-joint head that doesn't fit with the ball-jointed bodies, a hinged part that is now too expensive to assemble);
- Lucasfilm or Hasbro wanted a different expression to give a wider range of product in the brand;
- Lucasfilm or Hasbro feels the market will no longer bear out that headsculpt if it's been heavily used.

Can you think of a recent example where Hasbro redid a likeness that was acceptable, replacing it with one that isn't? That reminds me more of problems of the past than of the present, I can't think of one since like '07.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Not so much "unacceptable," but the new Bespin Leia head looks like only a lateral move to me. Since, depending upon where you buy the new one (and bought the old one), she could cost almost three times as much as the previous figure, that's unacceptable.

Sculpts are about both, really. The primary sculpt may not have enough time budgeted to get it perfect, time is really money in this situation. Or the primary sculpt is a home run but there's not enough skill or time at the factory to translate it into the tooling as well as it deserves. The problem is that the figures we get are factory sculpts based on artistic sculpts, it's an extra set of hands in the process and they're thousands of miles away with not all that much oversight at those chinese vendors. When you look at some of Vennemeyer's sculpts (Dave Vennemeyer: Hasbro chief sculptor for this brand) at a convention - he often brings the wax originals and prototypes and such - they're lightyears better than the production versions and the reason becomes clear when you listen to what the team talks about with chinese factories/vendors. So Tycho is not exactly right and not exactly wrong when he says budget is part of the problem.

That makes a lot of sense as to why some of the sculpts seem to "go south" like they do. Kind of like comic book art - you could have the best penciller in the world, but if the inker is bad, then the art is going to look like crap no matter what.

That's got to be frustrating for Hasbro's sculptors.

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

Well, I think the reference to 2007 involved that Moisture Farmer Luke which included the Moisture Vaporator (I'm pretty sure - didn't buy that figure of course).

But the headsculpt was so bad on Luke it was hard to imagine anyone buying it. Furthermore, I think it was the Yavin Ceremony Luke figure in the TAC that looked so palid because of the paint that I was referring to him as Luke Skywalker with Cancer since he really looked like he'd just returned from chemotherapy.

As to what's left to do in basic figures being the question, I would always answer that question in terms of never-made-before-figures plus original vintage remakes.

By my numbering, there were 102 vintage CHARACTERS made from the original Kenner collection (as I include the Rebo Band and Jabba and Salacious, plus Blue Snaggletooth). I number them as follows, and BOLDED those that haven't been re-done to exact specifications:

So anyway, the above PT list might be incomplete as to who they made and there are definitely more, but the RED answers who they have left to do that they SHOULD DO to answer JediTricks' question "Who's left to do?"

BAD Pts Need:R5-C7 lf leg (x2), , R4-P44 right leg BAD Pts Offered For Trade: PM me - I have lots of parts now including BG-J38!. New Kyle Katarn is also available.

Yoda Spirit in the "modern spirit" style
Anakin Skywalker Spirit (Shaw) in the "modern spirit" style
Anakin Skywalker Spirit (Hayden) in the "original holo blue spirit" style (since I'd appreciate the option of being able to represent all the spirits in either artistic style)
Cliegg Lars
Sim Aloo

I think that is about it for me as far as the movies go. There are a few select background characters here and there (and occasional character in a previously unreleased outfit), but the above is probably the most important of what is left to be done for me. Yeah "so-and-so" and this or that could always use an improved sculpt or articulation here and there, but by and large I'm satisfied with what figures we already got from 1995-present. Until collector toy companies came along (like McFarlane and Neca) the sculpts by and large for Star Wars were (and still are) miles beyond what most other toy companies pumped out past or present for other toy lines. Even the 1995 steroid Star Wars figures (which are moot now since newer more accurate figures of those characters have replaced everything from back then). I just don't really feel the need for owning 18 plus versions of Jedi Luke. And when it comes to never before released characters or new outfits for Amidala, etc. we are kind of scraping the barrel. After pumping out figures nonstop for close to 20 years straight Hasbro has almost hit everything that matters to me in regards to the Star Wars movies (or what any other toy company could ever possibly hope to do for any other franchise I could ever care about). Aside from the above mentioned movie figures the only thing I look forward to anymore Star Wars related (that hasn't been completely done) is Expanded Universe figures.

A New HopeCharacter/outfit debut
*Arleil Schous
*Braconnor Bakiska (Fu Manchu - could use Trinto Duaba's headsculpt as a starting point, maybe)
*Banniss Keeg
*Melas
*Mosep Binneed
*Ownellco or Atheloe (same species as Solomahal - their names were recently established and Solomahal was established as being only in the Holiday Special)
*Tzizvvt
*Theron Nett (Red Ten)
*Puck Naeco (Red Twelve)
*Lars Family Power Droid

As you can see, I'd like to see the on-screen, in-flight ANH pilots completed (Puck Naeco only appears when Theron Nett dies, actually), as well as the skiff guards (the human ones are less interesting but I'd still like to see them) and cantina patrons (though I don't know if I need two of every alien species that had two near-identical characters). We're pretty close on all three of those. I'm also always down for more Ewoks, though since the vintage ones have all been updated and we finally have Kneesaa, I don't have any preferences on which they do from here on out. ESB is pretty close to what I'd consider complete, but it doesn't have as many background characters as the other films anyway.